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Monday | July 11

Klawock

“The white man must treat the beasts of this land as his brothers. What is man without the beasts? If all the beasts were gone, we would die from a great loneliness of spirit…for whatever happens to the beasts also happens to the man. All things are connected. Whatever befalls the earth befalls the children of earth.” --Chief Seattle, Puget Sound Suwamish Tribe 1854

More sunshine! We awake early and enjoy the slow cruise and docking at the pier in the town of Klawock, located on the windward side of Prince of Wales Island.

Our Tlingit hosts take us on a walk to see the totem-carving shed.

We also see the longhouse that holds the newly carved and painted totems.

A ¼-mile away behind the local shopping mall lies an empty lot that has dozens of old totems lined up in a row, exposed to the sun and rain. On the 1-mile walk back toward the ship, we visit the totem park at the center of town. Celebrations and pole-raising will take place in early August for 5 or 6 totems. Years of hard work and carving have gone into these amazing totems.

I have a couple of volunteers help me with a plankton tow on the pier. The pier lies in the middle of an estuary, where the river meets the sea. We can see the bounty of life floating beneath the ship including schooling fish, ctenophores and the lions mane jellyfish.

Back aboard, I set-up two stereoscopes and pour the contents of the plankton tow into specimen dishes for observation.

In the afternoon, we are back in Sea Otter Sound. Our wildlife spotters are able to find a couple of sea otter rafts. An announcement from the bridge alerts guests about a small-craft advisory in effect. Therefore, we won’t be crossing Chatham Strait over to Baranof Island.

As a result of the small-craft warning, we’ll be looking at an itinerary change that we all will be excited about. It sure is appreciated when folks on an expedition-style voyage have a flexible attitude, adapting to different circumstances!

The unknowns on any trip add to the excitement! Our expedition leader and captain spend hours pouring over the charts to determine what would provide the most interesting alternative (to sea-sickness and possible damage to items on the ship).

Monday | June 27th

Klawock and Sea Otter Sound

We enjoy sunny skies as we disembark at the docks in Klawock and assemble on the pier for a walking tour. Les our guide tells stories his father told him about signs being put out in the streets that said: “No Dogs or Indians Allowed”. He went on to describe the beginning of the Alaska Native Brotherhood.

I drift into reverie and can’t help but think of the audacity of the first Europeans when they arrived in North America by asking the natives: “Where is your flag? You don’t have one? We claim this land for the Queen of England!”

We approach the oldest cannery in Southeast Alaska and Les tells us about how thick the fish returns used to be. Behind the cannery about 2 miles away we can see a large paper/pulp mill. Les tells us that countless logs are shipped overseas from Prince of Wales Island to the Far East. Apparently, the mill is owned by the same family that runs the mill in my home-state of Washington at Port Townsend. 30 employees are employed at the POW site near Klawock.

For the birders in the group, we are entertained by the behavior and vocalizations of around two dozens species, the loudest of which is the song sparrow, orange-crowned warblers, winter wren and common raven. The call of the bald eagle “wowed” some folks. Film-makers in Hollywood seem to always play a recording of a red-shouldered hawk in place of the real eagle vocalization. Perhaps the real eagle call is un-regal?

The view of the river estuary with the backdrop of the snow-capped mountains was appreciated by all as we walked a mile to the carving shed from the totem park.

For those of us crew that make it here twice per month, we were amazed at how much progress has been made on the totems that will be erected in early August during a three-day festival. Accompanying Les is young apprentice James Mills, who has contributed his advanced carving skills to the community of Klawock. Everyone enjoys the carving shed where we meet Master Carver Jon Rowan Jr., the main carver of poles and overseer of the project. Sydney, niece of Les, has done a marvelous job of painting the totems, particularly the Naasteidi Flicker totem pole that has the red polka dots.

We get back underway at lunchtime and enjoy a mid-afternoon party on the Sun Deck. The central focus is our over-sized BBQ grill. Passengers and crew crowd around where we shuck and roast oysters that we picked-up yesterday from our oyster-farming friends in El Capitan Passage.

Captain Dano Quinn is busy on the bridge watching for whales but he enjoys the flavors of our shellfish with hot sauce!

Captain Dano surprises us later in the afternoon with an offering of small boat tours to a miniature archipelago of islands in Sea Otter Sound. The lighting for sunset is warm and perfect for pictures. As usual, a parade of interesting plankton flowed beneath the ship, including jellyfish and a pelagic mollusk.

Monday | May 30th

We visit the town of Klawock, south of El Capitan Passage on the windward side of POW Island. Our host, Les, takes all of our guests on a tour and has his niece Sidney and a young totem carver named James accompany us and interpret the Totem Park, totem-carving shed, ceremonial house and totem “graveyard” along the way.

After dinner, Lee our pastry chef made me a special dessert that I ate without any hands. Crew got a good laugh…it’s not the first time I’ve made a fool of myself.

Sunday | May 15th

We explore Prince of Wales (POW) Island, the largest in Southeast Alaska, with the dimensions of 135 miles long by 45 miles wide. It has been logged extensively and there are 1000’s of miles of roads with plenty of camping and fish camps available for those that travel from Ketchikan or beyond. POW has almost 1,000 miles of shoreline and numerous lakes in the interior that offer excellent fishing for rainbow, steelhead and cutthroat trout. Towns include: Hydaburg and Thorne Bay, Hollis, Craig and Klawok.